Who Were the “Mixed Multitude” Who Joined Israel in the Exodus?

Jan. 31 2020

In tomorrow’s Torah reading, the Bible states that, when the Jews went out of Egypt, a “mixed multitude” (erev rav) accompanied them. At least, this is how the King James Bible and most traditional Jewish commentaries understand the phrase, taking its first word (erev) to mean “mixture” and the second (rav) to mean “many” or “numerous.” David Zucker explains some of the other possibilities:

Shaul Bar, professor of Bible at the University of Memphis, notes that in a number of biblical contexts the term erev seems to refer to soldiers. Similarly, Israel Knohl, professor emeritus of Bible at the Hebrew University, suggests that it may be a cognate of the Akkadian urbi, which refers to a type of soldier.

[In addition], many scholars are skeptical that the word rav here really means “many.” The term has reduplicative quality, with the letters resh and bet being repeated: erev rav. Thus, [the Italian rabbi and scholar] Umberto Cassuto (1883–1951) writes in his commentary on Exodus [that] “the correct view is that which regards the expression erev rav as a single word from the stem arav,” [meaning “to mix”]. In fact, in the Samaritan Pentateuch, the term is written as one word, aravrav. If this is the origin of the term, then the Torah is making no comment at all on the size of the group.

This reading in fact strengthens the traditional interpretation that equates the erev rav with the asafsuf—also a “mixed multitude” in the King James Version—of Numbers 11:4. While ancient and medieval commentaries believe this group comprised Egyptians who chose to throw in their lot with the Israelites after seeing God’s power, two prominent modern rabbinic authorities have argued that these were Egyptians who had married Israelites. To the Zohar, meanwhile, they were a group of renegade magicians.

Read more at theTorah.com

More about: Biblical commentary, Biblical Hebrew, Exodus, Hebrew Bible, Zohar

The Mass Expulsion of Palestinians Is No Solution. Neither Are Any of the Usual Plans for Gaza

Examining the Trump administration’s proposals for the people of Gaza, Danielle Pletka writes:

I do not believe that the forced cleansing of Gaza—a repetition of what every Arab country did to the hundreds of thousands of Arab Jews in 1948— is a “solution.” I don’t think Donald Trump views that as a permanent solution either (read his statement), though I could be wrong. My take is that he believes Gaza must be rebuilt under new management, with only those who wish to live there resettling the land.

The time has long since come for us to recognize that the establishment doesn’t have the faintest clue what to do about Gaza. Egypt doesn’t want it. Jordan doesn’t want it. Iran wants it, but only as cannon fodder. The UN wants it, but only to further its anti-Semitic agenda and continue milking cash from the West. Jordanians, Lebanese, and Syrians blame Palestinians for destroying their countries.

Negotiations with Hamas have not worked. Efforts to subsume Gaza under the Palestinian Authority have not worked. Rebuilding has not worked. Destruction will not work. A “two-state solution” has not arrived, and will not work.

So what’s to be done? If you live in Washington, New York, London, Paris, or Berlin, your view is that the same answers should definitely be tried again, but this time we mean it. This time will be different. . . . What could possibly make you believe this other than ideological laziness?

Read more at What the Hell Is Going On?

More about: Donald Trump, Gaza Strip, Palestinians